Thumbnail Designer

The Role

We are hiring a Lead Thumbnail Designer to own the visual front door of every long-form video PlotPointe publishes on YouTube. This is a senior, leadership-level role for a designer who can sustain elite individual output while building and leading a team that scales with our publishing volume. PlotPointe ships around 48 long-form YouTube videos a month, and the bar for every one is a 9% click-through rate. You will design at that bar, run A/B tests as a default operating rhythm, read YouTube Studio data fluently, and within months hire and lead a thumbnail team built around your standards.

What You'll Be Responsible For

Driving a sustained 9%+ CTR across the long-form publishing slate of roughly 48 videos a month.

Designing thumbnails personally at lead-level quality while building the systems that allow a team to match your bar.

Recruiting, training, and managing a thumbnail team that grows alongside our channel portfolio.

Setting visual standards across typography, facial expression direction, contrast logic, composition, and asset prep workflows.

Running A/B testing as a default behavior. Designing the test, reading the result, and iterating fast.

Turning impression, CTR, and average view duration data into design decisions.

Collaborating with writers, editors, and channel leads to align thumbnails with story hooks and audience intent.

Owning quality control across every thumbnail that ships under PlotPointe channels.

Building a sourcing pipeline of strong designers you can grow the team with.

What We're Looking For

4+ years designing thumbnails for storytelling channels at scale.

Demonstrated personal track record of 8 to 10%+ CTR on channels delivering 1M+ views per video, supported by analytics you can speak to.

Steady-state experience producing 20+ thumbnails per week.

Fluency with YouTube Studio analytics, A/B testing methodology, and CTR benchmarking by niche.

Experience leading or training designers, with the appetite to build a team further.

Strong communication skills and confidence working across editorial, production, and channel leadership.

Experience using AI tools

What You Bring

Candidates should bring a portfolio of high-CTR work backed by performance data, examples of design decisions defended with analytics, and the operational maturity to lead a team without losing the individual bar. We care about how you communicate, how you give feedback to junior designers, and how you carry yourself inside a high-volume publishing schedule where decisions move daily.

Skills

YouTube thumbnail design

A/B testing methodology

YouTube Studio analytics

Adobe Photoshop and Creative Suite

Visual storytelling and hook design

Team leadership and mentorship

High-volume creative production